Kirkby Gallery: Quentin Blake As Large as Life

We are delighted to present the exhibition, ‘As Large as Life’, which is a new body of work by world-renowned illustrator Quentin Blake. Blake is best known, both in England and internationally, as an illustrator of children’s books, however over the past ten years his pictures have increasingly escaped from the pages of books. Blake has produced designs for fabrics, wallpaper, ceramics, lampshades and greetings cards but also, as large as life and sometimes even larger, works for the walls of museums and hospitals and other public spaces. For the first time, the exhibition will feature his illustrations for these public spaces including: the reception area of a children’s hospital in London; residential wards and bedrooms of elderly mental health patients; a hospital for eating disorder patients and most recently – a series devoted to mothers and babies swimming together under water for a new maternity unit in Angers, France. Patients and doctors vouch for their therapeutic effect: visitors to the exhibition will be able to experience it for themselves. The exhibition will also include a specially commissioned Reading and Family Room complete with lots to see and do in this area for families. Kirkby Gallery is only one of four galleries that Larger than Life is touring to, the other venues are Compton Verney in Warwickshire, The Foundling Museum in Paisley and Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. Location: Kirkby Library / Gallery, Newtown Gardens, Kirkby, Knowsley, L32 8RROpening times: Monday & Friday: 9.15am – 5pm, Tuesday & Thursday: 9.15am – 7pm, Wednesday: 9.15am – 1pm, Saturday: 10am – 1pm.